With populations stretching into the millions, the clockwork cities of the Ilkatan Confederation are no stranger to various crimes and illegal activity. Being massive hubs of trade and industry, black-market trades, barely-legal business practices, and backstreet deals with politicians are all too common, yet across almost all the cities there is no name more synonymous with crime than the secretive coalition known only as The Spanners.
Hidden in Plain Sight
The Spanners are said to operate largely through shell corporations, anonymous land moguls, and even city-sponsored infrastructure companies. While there have been some instances of small hideouts carved into the underground aqueducts of the cities, most successful raids on Spanner bases have mostly been in condemned buildings or recently purchased real-estate. The near-constant expansion that the cities experience offers a continual cover for these practices; no-one bats an eye when groups of people carrying large objects walk in and out of a building that's said to be demolished in a few weeks; they're just part of the destruction crew.
Another factor that contributes to their secrecy is the way that they distinguish members. It's said that most members have a magical tattoo pen that allows them to take the Spanner insignia (an outline of two gears jammed by a crooked pipe) on and off at will. As long as they keep their pen hidden, no-one would suspect a thing.
Business and Practices
The Spanners operate largely as a Thieves' Guild, smuggling anything illegal and expensive across the cities and out of peoples' homes. It's frequently asserted that almost every family that has worked their way into wealth or nobility in the clockwork cities have done so either with the Spanner's blessing or their express aid. That said, there have been a number of high-profile attacks and assassinations that have involved the Spanners in one form or another. As such, Gear Guard across the cities are trained to presume that any Spanner member is armed with some kind of weapon and is proficient in some amount of combat. While not every robbery performed by an active Spanner member includes a calling card with their insignia, it seems that the organization likes to leave reminders of what they're capable of.
Ironically enough, the one city where Spanner presence seems to be the least chaotic and destructive is Venunda. More than likely due to the already large amounts of illicit activity that is facilitated by Regalia's looser regulations, some also like to claim that Regalia herself deals personally with the Spanners and allows them to quietly operate under her supervision.
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